Stories
by ttfan111robstar1
Summary: Five-Year-Old Draco asks his Uncle Sev to read him a muggle story before nap time. Snape reads him Rapunzel. One-Shot. It's a ball of fluff.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the characters here. Rapunzel was written by Hans Christian Anderson. The rendition used in this story is courtesy of

Draco Malfoy bounced up and down on his family's expensive couch. Today, Uncle Sev was coming over for a visit. Severus Snape held his Godson in high esteem, and was always pleased to see him. At five years old, the boy was bursting with energy and questions. He looked up to his Uncle on a level that bordered hero-worship. This admiration was only surpassed by his idolization of his own father.

The fireplace ignited, and Draco squeaked with excitement as his Uncle appeared. He ran over to him and hugged him, despite only being as tall as Snape's hip. The potions master smiled a little at the child's excitement. Draco always looked at him like he was a hero, and it puffed up his ego just a touch.

"Uncle Sev!" He cheered. The joyous sound drew Lucius and Narcissa out from the kitchen. Severus and Narcissa exchanged small smiles while Lucius shook hands with his best friend. Draco, although trained to be a Slytherin from this tender age, was not at the age where he could understand the emotionless mask most slytherin's have learned. His parents, however, weren't worried. He'd learn in due time. For now, they allowed Draco his joy.

Severus ran a hand through the child's blonde hair, smiling uncharacteristaically. He was not one to show affection (or any other emotion other than anger and stoic coldness, really), but the boy had pierced his icy heart and warmed him from the inside.

"How are you, Dragon?" The potions master inquired.

Draco beamed up at him. "Good." The boy scampered up onto the couch. He waited as the adults had their "kitchen time". He'd called it that ever since he could remember. All the adults went into the kitchen and talked about stuff he didn't understand. Impatiently, he patted the couch, waiting for kitchen time to be over- when his beloved uncle would pay attention to him again. He knew better than to interrupt, though. He had done it once and Daddy had taken his toy broom for the whole afternoon.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Uncle Sev finally looked at him and came into the living room. His excitement had worn him out. He was fighting sleep, desperate to spend time with his favorite uncle, but two o'clock was nearing- and he knew Mommy and Daddy wouldn't let him miss nap time. He was told that when he was six he wouldn't have to take naps anymore, so he held out hope for his next birthday. So, being a little Slytherin from birth, he took what was given to him and turned it to his advantage.

"Uncle Sev, will you read me a story?" He asked. Severus Snape was met with mercury-grey eyes that looked so damn hopeful he just couldn't say no.

"Alright, Draco." The boy squealed happily and took his Uncle's hand, leading him to his bedroom. The walls were green and silver- Slytherin was an integral part of being a Malfoy. The King sized bed seemed like it would swallow the child whole. By the double doors, there was a tiny bookshelf with plenty of magical children stories. Lucius and Narcissa watched from the hallway, smiling as Severus tucked his nephew into bed.

"What story would you like to hear, Draco?" He asked, looking at the bookshelf.

"I don't want a magic story. Do you know any muggle stories?" A few fairytales popped into his head. He looked to Lucius and Narcissa for guidance. They gave noncommittal shrugs. The look on Lucius' face said "Tell him one, it just gives us something to laugh about". He turned back to Draco, who was staring at him, anxiously awaiting an answer from his Uncle.

"I do."

"Yay!" Draco cried jovially. He snuggled back under the covers and waited for Snape to begin. The potions master, however, was at a loss of which story to tell the young child. He finally settled on the fairytale Rapunzel. Clearing his throat, he began to speak:

"This story is called Rapunzel. There were once a man and a woman who had long, in vain, wished for a child. At length it appeared that God was about to grant their desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion, and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it. She quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable."

"What does 'pined' mean?" Asked the child.

"She wanted it very badly." He explained. "Her husband was alarmed, and asked: 'What ails you, dear wife?' 'Ah,' she replied, 'if I can't eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die." The man, who loved her, thought: 'Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.' At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her - so very good, that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband knew he must once more descend into the garden. Therefore, in the gloom of evening, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him."

Draco's eyes were riveted on his Uncle as he told the tale.

"'How can you dare,' said she with angry look, 'descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!' 'Ah,' answered he, 'let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.' The enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him: 'If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.' The man in his terror consented to everything. When the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower in the middle of a forest. The tower had neither stairs nor door, but near the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.' Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress, she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it. After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. It was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king's son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it.

Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.' Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. 'If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my fortune,' said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.' Immediately the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up.

At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king's son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought: 'He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does'; and she said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said: 'I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.' They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day.

The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her: 'Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king's son - he is with me in a moment.' 'Ah! you wicked child,' cried the enchantress. 'What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!' In her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery. On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king's son came and cried: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.' she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks.

'Aha!' she cried mockingly, 'you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again.' The king's son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes. He wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented. The end."

By the end of the tale, Draco was asleep. As Snape got up, a tiny hand gripped his wrist feebly.

"I love you Uncle Sev." He murmured, before finally succumbing to sweet sleep.

For once, a smile was not forced on Snape's part.


End file.
